The Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) is the representative leadership and governing body of the Cooperative Extension System, the nationwide transformational education system operating through Land-grant Universities in partnership with federal, state, and local governments. ECOP focuses on four core themes: 1) Build partnerships and acquire resources; 2) Increase strategic marketing and communications; 3) Enhance leadership and professional development, and 4) Strengthen organizational functioning.
Identifies and recommends action on emerging future programs, program related issues and delivery systems important to the Extension System.
Regularly scans the Extension System to identify critical issues and to determine if an issue requires a rapid system-wide response.
Promotes, supports, and manages the National Extension Diversity Award recognizing, honoring, and promoting inclusive programming for and with diverse audiences.
Appoints, coordinates, monitors and dismisses work groups for defined purposes and time periods related to national program development priorities.
Regularly reports the creation, status, and conclusion of these groups to ECOP.
Creates program communication networks and systems for national sharing and learning.
The Extension Foundation and ECOP have a formal joint plan of work approved annually by ECOP and by the Foundation Board of Directors, and a formal MOU between ECOP and the 4-H Council. The Extension Foundation Board Chair and CEO serve as liaisons to ECOP plus the CEO serves on the ECOP Program Committee and the COO serves on the ECOP Personnel Committee. The Foundation also serves and supports ECOP Program Action Teams for system-wide initiatives.
Purpose
The ECOP Program Committee establishes and manages a portfolio of Program Action Teams (PATs) that focus on high priority societal issues that may benefit from coordinated system-level leadership in Extension programming. As such, each PAT provides systemwide or multi-state leadership to programming related to a particular area of focus. PATs may focus on Extension’s base programs (Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, Economic and Community Development and 4-H Youth Development) or on cross-cutting and timely issues related to one or more of these base programs.
Interested in Working with a PAT?
If you would like more information or are interested in working with one of the Program Action Teams, contact information is available at the link below.
Focus of PATs
- Identifying areas of greatest current or potential impact
- Identifying gaps in relevant Extension programming
- Identifying or developing promising programs
- Identifying and fostering relationships with current and potential national scale partners and pursue national scale funding on behalf of the system
- Convening work groups around various sub-areas of work related to the priority
- Expanding content contained in the ECOP Advocacy Toolkit
- Identifying measures of acceleration and impact
- Focusing CES interests on identified actions (solutions)
- Telling the story about Extension programming in these priority areas
- Empowering CES faculty and staff to engage with the various teams
- Managing progress toward long-term milestones
- Creating continuity, coordination and impacts in programming across the country